Why Does Hatred Make You Unhappy?
Hate is a powerful emotion, powerful enough to destroy nations. Hatred is self-destructive. If we do not watch our thoughts, we could slip into unhealthy patterns that make us unhappy.
Most of us nurture negative feelings towards people who we believe have wronged us. That’s human nature. However, hatred hurts us in so many ways.
- Hatred is corrosive. By ruminating over the wrong done to us, we extend the crime against us for a long time, which keeps us in a state of constant unhappiness.
- Hatred is home to a series of negative emotions like anger, disgust, hostility and bitterness.
- Feelings of hatred due to severe emotional trauma such as physical abuse, violence or rape need to be tackled professionally. But common everyday offences like criticism, scathing remarks and insults do not warrant malice.
- Healthy self-respect demands we stand up for ourselves and put an end to abuse. But let it not develop into hatred.
- Festering hate leads to obsession and dominates your mind, distracting you from moving ahead with your life goals. It draws your focus away from the constructive towards the destructive.
- Hate is regressive. It does not let you move forward. If you continue to hold on to the negative and bring it to your present and future, you will languish in anger and hatred to the point that people start avoiding you.
- Hate interferes with relationships and friendships. Imbalances in current relationships stem more from older judgments from previous relationships or abuse than due to problems in the current relationship.
- Physiologically, loathing eventually leads to several debilitating conditions. Constant triggering of adrenaline, which is a reaction to anger and hatred, leads to overproduction of acid in the stomach that may cause severe gastric afflictions like ulcer, acid reflux, etc.
- Nurturing hatred also gives you headaches, tension, blood pressure, aches and pains, chronic auto-immune conditions like diabetes, thyroid problems, muscular disorders, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, etc.
- Hatred causes sleep deprivation, insomnia and eventually depression.
- Hatred drains you of energy and the ability to enjoy your life!
Vanquish hatred for your own good
Hating someone or something actually diminishes you and makes you lose who you really are.
Hatred, when bottled up, may lead to outbursts, making you lose control of yourself. Hatred nurtures and perpetrates prejudices, bigotry and in some, aggression and mass violence that endangers the lives of the innocent.
For hatred to dissipate, we need to actively work on releasing it. Here’s how you do it:
- Walk away from harmful people or situations without saying anything or retaliating.
- Forgive and let go.
- If you feel strongly about a situation, ask yourself how you can change it positively. If you cannot, accept and let go.
- Take comfort in the belief that those who mete out injustice will one day face the consequences of their behavior simply because they cannot perpetrate injustice forever.
- Nurturing kindness and love helps you replace and prevent the emergence of negative thoughts and also peps up happy hormones like endorphins that are good for our health.
- Remember, your life is too valuable to waste on hatred.
- Seek counselling if negative thoughts persist constantly.
Set yourself free from hatred and savor happiness and kindness.
